The European Union welcomes the next step, approaching Ukraine to the visa-free regime with the European community. The representatives of the European Commission and the European Parliament write about this on social networks after successful completion of inter-institutional negotiations on draft decision to grant Ukraine visa-free regime, Ukrinform reports.

The trilateral negotiations between the Council of the European Union, the European Parliament, and the European Commission on the draft legislative resolution on waiving EU visa requirements for Ukrainians were successfully completed in the European Union on Tuesday.

Ukraine showed significant progress in the reform process in 2016, but the transformational changes will be successful only when citizens feel the positive results, Peter Wagner, Head of the Support Group for Ukraine at the European Commission, said at the international conference "Fair of projects ideas in support of reforms in Ukraine" in Brussels on Wednesday, Ukrinform reports.

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has passed the law on ratification of the agreement between the Government of Ukraine and the European Union on Ukraine's participation in the EU program "Competitiveness of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises” (COSME) for 2014-2020.

Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine has urged to stop coal supply blockade from the occupied territories of Donbas. The blockade of the railway communication between the territories controlled by Ukraine and ORDLO (uncontrolled areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions) is contrary to an inclusive approach to citizens of Ukraine who live in the territories where the state power bodies temporarily do not exercise their powers, the EU delegation told Interfax-Ukraine on Thursday.

The European Parliament will complete the approval procedure of the visa waiver suspension mechanism in the beginning of the next plenary session, UNIAN news agency reports citing a source in the European Parliament.

European Commission (EC) Chairman Jean-Claude Juncker has said that the second tranche of EUR 600 million of the macrofinancial assistance of the European Union (EU) could be provided to Ukraine in coming weeks, after the government files a bill regarding the moratorium on exports of timber to the Verkhovna Rada.

European Union's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spoke "at length" about terrorism, Russia, the Iran nuclear deal, and Ukraine in their first meeting, the EU said.

Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman on February 9-10 will pay an official visit to Brussels; according to the program of the visit, the Ukrainian premier will discuss current issues with the leadership of the European Union and NATO, Ukrinform reports.